The world’s second-largest construction equipment maker’s
goal is to save several hundred million dollars a year by
cutting its electricity usage in half by March 2015, it said in
an e-mail. As part of that effort, it will replace 40 of the 90
buildings at its 12 Japanese plants by 2020.

Komatsu, which derived 84 percent of its sales from outside
Japan in the last financial year, produces components
domestically for assembly at overseas plants. Japan will remain
the most important manufacturing base for Komatsu, Senior
Executive Officer Yoshisada Takahashi said in an earlier
interview.

“Unless we invest in people, factories and facilities in
Japan, new technologies wouldn’t come to our mind,” said
Takahashi, who is also head of production.

Japanese firms’ struggles with power shortages and rising
fuel costs are adding to the problems they face from lackluster
domestic demand and a strong yen, which hurts overseas sales.

“Cutbacks in electricity will be an unavoidable issue for
Japan,” said Yoshimasa Maruyama, chief economist at Itochu
Corp. in Tokyo. The government should offer power-saving
incentives to enable owners of homes, factories and office
buildings to boost spending and prop up the economy, he said.

Before the Fukushima accident, nuclear energy accounted for
30 percent of Japan’s electricity production. The nation’s
energy mix remains in doubt after Cabinet stopped short of fully
endorsing Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda’s proposal last week to
scrap nuclear energy by the end of the 2030s.

To meet its target of cutting electricity usage by half,
Komatsu plans to save 10 percent by eliminating wasteful use of
lights and air conditioners, said Takahashi. Another 10 percent
will come from utilizing natural resources, including solar
power for lighting and underground water as a coolant.
Production efficiencies will drive the remaining 30 percent, as
engineers review the manufacturing process to save more power.